|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
108.216.110.30
In Reply to: RE: Comments for Acoustic Research 3a posted by fstein on May 29, 2017 at 06:46:49
One of my long-term audio buddies has two pair of restored AR-3s. He drives them (one pair) with Herron SS monoblocs (275 watts @ 4 ohms) and a Herron tubed line stage. His feeling is had he known how good they could sound decades ago he would have saved considerable sums of money. Oh yes, he has been a semi-professional violinist his whole adult life and has spent considerable time with chamber and symphony orchestras. So he does have some reference for live musical performances.
My audio hobby days extend back to the '60s when the AR-3 and 3a were new. I could never understand dealers packaging them with Stereo 70s. That was simply inadequate power to drive the 3s properly. My first stereo included AR-4s with a St-70 and that was an entirely different story.
"The piano ain't got no wrong notes." Thelonious Monk
Follow Ups:
The Stereo 70 and AR3s was an almost standard combo back in the 60s. But you're correct that it was too little power. The speaker really needed hundreds of solid state watts with a high damping factor. In a way it was a speaker ahead of its time.
For what it's worth when AR did its famous AR3 versus live comparisons the amps used were Dynaco MK3s, a better choice but still probably too small.
Thanks for that about the Mk IIIs. It was what I suspected but never knew.
I wanted the AR-3s but my student budget only allowed the AR-4s.
"The piano ain't got no wrong notes." Thelonious Monk
If you want to know more about AR, there's a great DVD interview with Edgar Vilchur done by the AES. Just Google AES Vilchur interview.
I used a Stereo 70 with one AR 2a-x and it simply wasnt enough.
I had the same combo in the 60s and it seemed OK to me then. I suspect my perspective has changed a lot since then and I'd be surprised if it still satisfied me even a little. The AR 2ax speakers are quite inefficient and calling a Stereo 70 a 35 watter is really generous, perhaps 20 watts is closer to reality.
But I'll repeat. In the 60s a Stereo 70 and AR2/AR3 speakers were a very, very popular combo.
FAQ |
Post a Message! |
Forgot Password? |
|
||||||||||||||
|
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: